10 Most Iconic Monuments in America

Caroline Costello's travel accomplishments include surviving a 2 a.m. whitewater rafting excursion in the Canadian wilderness, successfully biking from Dusseldorf to Cologne without a map, and gaining access to a covert pizza speakeasy in New Orleans.

Caroline is an active member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW). Her work has appeared on USA Today, the Boston Globe, AOL.com, MSNBC.com, ABC News, TODAY Travel, and CruiseCritic.com, among other publications.

U.S. monuments are more than just field-trip fodder for the grade-school set. Sure, they’re educational. But these larger-than-life landmarks are also downright dazzling. Here are our picks for the 10 most iconic monuments in the U.S. Swing by one of these sites on your summer vacation and you can stand at the spot where game-changing historic events took place, snap photos worthy of a magazine cover, or take in spectacular views from atop soaring sculptures.

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(Photo: Core of Discovery)

Gateway Arch, St. Louis

St. Louis' legendary arch, which stands at the Gateway to the West, soars 630 feet above a parkâthe monument is taller than the Washington Monument and the Statue of Libertyâat the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial park. Those who aren't easily unsettled by heights can take a tram to the top of the arch, where visitors can see as far as 30 miles on a clear day, and get a bird's-eye glimpse of the Mississippi River and the St. Louis area.

(Photo: Core of Discovery)

Gateway Arch, St. Louis

St. Louis' legendary arch, which stands at the Gateway to the West, soars 630 feet above a parkâthe monument is taller than the Washington Monument and the Statue of Libertyâat the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial park. Those who aren't easily unsettled by heights can take a tram to the top of the arch, where visitors can see as far as 30 miles on a clear day, and get a bird's-eye glimpse of the Mississippi River and the St. Louis area.

(Photo: Thinkstock/iStockphoto)

Statue Of Liberty, New York

The Statue of Liberty, an official National Monument, was erected in 1886 to commemorate the end of the U.S. Civil War and the abolition of slavery. (Broken shackles lie at the statue's feet.) But to millions of immigrants arriving in the U.S. near the turn of the 20th century, the statue also stood for hope and new beginnings in America. A gargantuan, welcoming sentry positioned over the immigrant processing station at Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty had become an iconic symbol of U.S. immigration by the 20th century. In 1903, Emma Lazarus' poem, The New Colossus, which contains the famous lines, "Give me your tired, your poor,/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," was engraved on a plaque at the statue's base.

Washington Monument, Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., is packed with important monuments, including the Lincoln Memorial, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and the brand-new Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial (just to name a few!). But the obelisk-shaped Washington Monument, which the U.S. National Park Service calls "the most prominent structure in Washington, D.C.," is our pick for most iconic. Constructed in 1884 in commemoration ofâwho elseâGeorge Washington, the monument is over 555 feet tall and offers views of more than 30 miles in the distance.

(Photo: Ed Menard Ranger)

Mount Rushmore, South Dakota

Three million people head to the Black Hills of South Dakota annually to peer at the massive mugs of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. It took 14 years for 400 workers to carve the faces, which are about 60 feet tall, into granite. Along with getting a close-up look at the awesome mountainside sculpture, visitors to Mount Rushmore can throw on some hiking boots and go rock climbing and wildlife watching (there are more than 200 mountain goats in the area) in the surrounding Black Hills.

(Photo: Patrick Pyszka)

‘Cloud Gate’ Sculpture, Chicago

The reflective Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago's Millennium Park is the newest monument on our list. But shortly after it was created in 2004, the stainless-steel bean-shaped outdoor sculpture, which mirrors the city skyline, became a Chicago icon. According to Budget Travel, the Cloud Gate is "the shiny centerpiece of Millennium Park's AT&T Plaza" and is one of the most photographed places on earth.

Bunker Hill Monument, Boston

Like the Washington Monument, the Bunker Hill Monument is a sky-scraping obelisk, although at 221 feet tall, it's less than half the height of its D.C. foil. The monument marks the spot where the American Revolution kicked off in 1775: The Battle of Bunker Hill in Charlestown (a neighborhood of Boston) was the first major fight in the war for U.S. independence. A museum across from the monument features artifacts from the battle, such as an authentic cannon ball and other Revolutionary War weapons. To get your full fill of American history while in Boston, walk the two-and-a-half mile Freedom Trail, which features 16 historically significant sites, including the Bunker Hill Monument.

United States Marine Corps War Memorial, Arlington

One of the most famous images of World War II is commemorated in bronze on George Washington Memorial Parkway in Arlington, Virginia. The United States Marine Corps War Memorial, built to honor Marines who died in service, was modeled after a celebrated photograph taken during the Battle of Iwo Jima on Japan's Volcano Islands. The statue depicts a group of Marines raising a U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi, and on the base of the memorial, an inscription reads: "Uncommon Valor was a Common Virtue." Visit on a Tuesday during summer and catch a one-hour sunset Marine Corps parade, complete with bugle music and precision drills.

(Photo: K. Ciappa for GPTMC)

Liberty Bell, Philadelphia

The Liberty Bell is a national symbol of freedomâas well as a token image of Philadelphia, its hometown. Initially, the bell led an ordinary life, ringing from the Pennsylvania State House in its working days before becoming deeply cracked in the early 19th century. When an inscription on the bell, "Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof," garnered the attention of abolitionists during the 1830s, the instrument was transformed into an icon of freedom for slaves. After the Civil War, the Liberty Bell spent several decades touring the country before coming to rest in Philadelphia.

USS ‘Arizona’ Memorial, Honolulu

The USS Arizona Memorial, a National Monument, spans the water where the sunken USS Arizona battleship rests on the ocean floor in Pearl Harbor, Honolulu. The memorial honors those who died in the Pearl Harbor attacks on December 7, 1941â"a date which will live in infamy," said Franklin D. Roosevelt. One unique feature of the memorial: Survivors of the Pearl Harbor attacks volunteer at the USS Arizona Memorial, sharing their stories with the public.

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

A bridge might not be the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of a monument, but the Golden Gate Bridge is anything but your average precipice-spanning structure. It's one part functional roadway, one part beautiful, iconic sculpture. The orange art-deco suspension bridge had the longest span in the world when it was completed in 1937. Although the bridge is no longer the world's lengthiest, it still stands as a monument to American innovation and is considered to be one of the seven wonders of the modern world by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

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